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Election 2006 (and beyond): Digital Copyright Canada
From: russell_-at-_flora.ottawa.on.ca (Russell McOrmond)
Date: 4 Apr 1999 14:21:46 -0400
Is it possible for a group of us to get together to write equivalent documents to be sent to our various representatives? We all know that it is inevitable that Open Source, Open Standards and Free Software will eventually win out over proprietary information/software, but I would like to help speed up this process. I for one am tired of having our public institutions privatized. It is my belief that information created or supported by my tax money should be freely available, and that Access to Information laws should apply to all software being used by the Government. The easiest way for any government to do that is to have all software it uses be under a Public License of some sort. I would be interested in bring in Y2K issues into the discussion, and trying to explain to government representatives that Peer Reviewed systems would not have had the same failings and would not have costed the taxpayers the levels of money that their current systems do. Information should only be private when it is a matter of national security, and under a Public License otherwise. I recently read an interesting historical perspective on the issue: http://muq.org/~cynbe/rants/lastdino.htm "The Last Dinosaur and the Tarpits of Doom: How Linux Smashed Windows". While I'm not too interested in the brand names (Linux or Windows), it does give some interesting commentary on Open Standards vs Proprietary information. --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://russell.flora.org/work/> FLORA: Planned Upgrades/outages! http://www.flora.org/flora.announce/90 Melissa Virus - the real story! http://www.flora.org/flora.comnet-www/1453 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 13:19:57 +0530 From: Arup A. Bhanja <abhanja@cal.vsnl.net.in> To: Linux-India <linux-india@grandteton.cs.uiuc.edu> Subject: Re: Minnesota might shake up the closed-source juggernaut Folks, take a look at this. It's an initiative on the use of free software in Govt. Sorry, but it's a bit of a long post :-) -Arup -----Original Message----- From: Lyno Sullivan <lls@freedomain.org> To: mn-netgov@egroups.com <mn-netgov@egroups.com> Date: Monday, February 15, 1999 7:43 AM Subject: [mn-netgov] Recommendations for Free Software in Government >February 14, 1999 >To: Senator Steve Kelley, Chair Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Information >Technology >cc: Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Information Technology, Senate State Government >Finance Committee, Senate Governmental Operations Budget Division, Senate >Governmental Operations and Veterans Committee, House State Government Finance >Committee, House Governmental Operations and Veterans Affairs Policy Committee, >et al >Fr: Lyno Sullivan <lls@freedomain.org> >Re: Recommendations for Free Software in Government > >THE SITUATION > >I would like to inform you about a serious State Budget matter. Millions of >taxpayer dollars per year are being unnecessarily spent on computer server >software, while better free software (*1) alternatives are largely ignored. >This situation will get worse and worse over the next few years, unless the >Legislature takes decisive action now. > >Left to its current course, the growing dependence on proprietary, closed >source software will create an intractable and expensive problem. It is time to >act, to stop the growing problem, and to staunch the loss of Minnesota taxpayer >dollars. I recommend that the Legislature direct the agencies of government >to cease new expenditures for non-free server software. Related personnel >training costs should cease immediately, and be replaced by training state >personnel about free software systems. > >Please understand that I am not blaming the State's information officers; I >know they are doing the best they can to make the right spending decisions, >based on the information that is given to them. I have sought to provide them >with alternatives which will enable them to reduce their share of government >spending. I seek the Legislature's support in guiding them towards this >objective. > >THE RECOMMENDED SOLUTION > >Upon the advice of the Executive Committee of the Information Policy Council, a >simple cessation of these funds would be too extreme. Yet, as a taxpayer, >technically qualified to recommend in such matters, I believe these >expenditures must be capped and diminished over time. As a casual observer of >legislative process, I believe that leaving these taxpayer dollars within the >agencies invites a painful budgetary process, that will drag legislative >committees through arcane technical discussions. As an alternative, I propose: > >Effective immediately, freeze (at current levels or lower) all spending for >non-free, closed source, software. Establish a Legislative audit to determine >the Total Cost of Operation (TCO) costs of non-free server and desktop >software. Establish a cost reduction plan that will result in the elimination >of spending on non-free software and related costs, throughout the Minnesota >public sector. Collect all those monies, identified by the TCO analysis, >together into a revolving Software Freedom Fund, to be administered by a >suitable state agency, perhaps by the Office of Technology. Continuing in that >vein, require that all further purchases and upgrades of non-free, closed >source server and desktop software must be approved by the Minnesota Office of >Technology's, Information Policy Council (IPC), which contains all the Chief >Information Officers of the government agencies. Placing the funds under the >control of the IPC will simplify the legislative budget process, and it will >place the matter into the hands of the architects of the Minnesota State >information infrastructure, who can create a unified model, of our future >networked government. The IPC should be further charged to connect every >public sector worker in Minnesota to the network by 2002. > >Rather than moving the savings back into the General Fund, I recommend that the >savings, within the Software Freedom Fund, be spent on writing free software >and free content, to be licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) or >a suitable free software license. The State should collect the free software >tools necessary to attain these goals, within the Government Information >Freedom Toolbox (the GIFT), which will be created as a byproduct of Minnesota >State government's conversion to free software. The State should recover its >distribution costs of the GIFT and place those revenues back into the Software >Freedom Fund, to endow the creation of more free software and content. > >Thank you for considering these recommendations. > >Respectfully, > >Lyno Sullivan <lls@freedomain.org> >206 S. 5th St. >Stillwater, MN 55082-4917 >651-430-0507 > >TECHNICAL NOTES > >This recommendation is implemented by replacing proprietary, closed source >server systems with the free software GNU/Linux operating system and its >firewall, web server, mail transport agent, file server, print server, etc. >free software. I will provide additional technical software, training and >support recommendations, to any who email me with a specific request for >information. > >RESOURCES AND FOOTNOTES > >(*1) "Categories of Free and Non-Free Software" >See <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html> > >"Recommendations for Free Software in Government" ><http://www.freedomain.org/^lls/free-mn/19990214-leg.html> >A URL for this letter. > >"MPDN - Minnesota Public Digital Network" ><http://www.freedomain.org/^lls/free-mn/19981222-mpdn.html> >This article provides a broad set of public goals, concerning the creation of a >statewide information network. > >"Free MN Initiative" ><http://www.freedomain.org/^lls/free-mn/19981003-free-mn.html> >This article is a precursor to the recommendations in this letter. The "Free >MN Initiative" was presented to the Information Policy Council and modified >based on the discussions. > >"Lyno Sullivan Writings" ><http://www.freedomain.org/^lls/lls-portal.html> >A list of the author's major articles associated with Minnesota State >information policy recommendations. > ><http://www.gnu.org> >The "home" of the free software community. > ><http://www.opensource.org/> >OpenSource(tm) software is a synonym for free software. > >-- >Copyright (c) 1999 Lyno Sullivan; this digital object is free and may >be copied, modified and distributed under the GNU Library General >Public License (LGPL) at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lgpl.html and >it comes with absolutely NO WARRANTY; >mailto:lls@freedomain.org > -- To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@grandteton.cs.uiuc.edu with the body "unsubscribe linux-india" and an empty subject line. FAQ: http://members.home.net/adsharma/linux-india.html
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